Really excited about this. Heck it can only help my property value. That being said cranberry traffic and 228 traffic especially is only going to get worse and its really bad now. This town is just growing so fast the roads can't keep up.

First Terry Pegula gifted Penn State with a new hockey arena to start a Division I program. Now check out what he's set to gift the City of Buffalo, a development adjacent to and connected with the First Niagara Arena consisting of a hotel, parking garage, and twin rinks on top of the garage, one of which would be an 1,800-seat arena. He wants to turn the area into a center for youth hockey, tournaments, and presumably the Sabre's practice rink. He envisions out-of-towners filling the hotel for games and tournaments and adding even more vibrancy to an area around a section of the historic Erie Canal that is being redeveloped with other entertainment venues. He thinks his project will make the Sabres a more enticing destination for free agents.

To any Penguins' officials who might read this: Check into Mr. Pegula's project and find out how he expects it to benefit the Sabres. Possibly reconsider the location of the Pens/UPMC training facility. There is plenty of land just east of the Consol arena and it would be just one block from the biggest UPMC facility (Mercy Hospital). Cranberry is too far from the city and even farther from the airport. Might that hurt free agent recruitment? Put the facility downtown for the benefit of the city you represent. Besides UPMC, work with Duquesne U and Point Park U who might desire a rink for student recreation and club hockey teams.

Putting an extension/another rink by Consol would be even more of a logistical nightmare than the current arena already is during game days.

The rink in Cranberry is the best plan of action; it's a booming area, and the housing plans around that area are the kind of plans NHL'ers want to move their families into. Big houses, safe hoods. Cranberry is ideal in that regards.

MRandall25 wrote:Putting an extension/another rink by Consol would be even more of a logistical nightmare than the current arena always is during game days.

The rink in Cranberry is the best plan of action; it's a booming area, and the housing plans around that area are the kind of plans NHL'ers want to move their families into. Big houses, safe hoods. Cranberry is ideal in that regards.

I dont disagree but too be fair there are plenty of areas surrounding Pgh where players can live and that are booming, north, south, east and west. Now most will want to live in Cranberry of course, as its a hike from anywhere, but so was Southpointe. Although from my experiences Cranberry is just an explicit nightmare to drive to and through, worst in the city and awful compared to just getting on 79 south to southpointe, but thats for me so I dont venture that way too much.

As one of the biggest critics of Consol and its complete lack of basically anything compared to any other new arena, other than being new and having a crisper scoreboard, I am not sold on their redevelopment plans as this great possibility just yet. Not saying adding the practice rink/training center is the right thing to do or even possible but it would have went a long way into getting me thinking about the area and what may come.

To be fair the Buffalo plan is really cool and it seems they are trying to use the facility a lot more and in a lot more ways than the Penguins which is a huge difference. Although the Penguins are now putting up little ice rinks in every area of the city.

Terry has the cash though. Burkle does but I doubt he is going to invest heavily into development surrounding our city as he has his own billion dollar investments to worry about. Just different types of owners, one not worse than the other, just different.

The facility in Cranberry might not even happen. Last I heard the township was giving them crap about traffic in the area. Pretty stupid IMO. Its not like there will be thousands of people going there on a daily basis.

DMcGrew wrote:The facility in Cranberry might not even happen. Last I heard the township was giving them crap about traffic in the area. Pretty stupid IMO. Its not like there will be thousands of people going there on a daily basis.

Interesting, I never really cared one way or the other for the idea. I personally just think Cranberry is a nightmare so I dont go often but I didnt want that to be a reason why a training center would be bad. If its just a practice facility type so be it.

Now if the Penguins wanted to use the training center as something similar to Buffalo with tournaments, league play and whatever else I think there are better areas.

If not then I agree with your assessment that adding 35, 50 or even 100 daily cars to that disaster area wont mean nutin.

For what it is worth, if they do build this off of 228 in Cranberry it is literally right off of 79. The second Cranberry exit was a big construction project as you can get on/off the turnpike right there and it goes right onto 228 where you can then access 19 to get to everything in Cranberry. And they have another construction plan in place they are going to do soon where they are changing up the ramps so you do not have to wait at a light and cross traffic to get on/off 79 from 228, along with some other changes to ease traffic on 228 itself.

JeffDFD wrote:For what it is worth, if they do build this off of 228 in Cranberry it is literally right off of 79. The second Cranberry exit was a big construction project as you can get on/off the turnpike right there and it goes right onto 228 where you can then access 19 to get to everything in Cranberry. And they have another construction plan in place they are going to do soon where they are changing up the ramps so you do not have to wait at a light and cross traffic to get on/off 79 from 228, along with some other changes to ease traffic on 228 itself.

Hopefully things like more than 1 lane after you hit the crest of the hill

JeffDFD wrote:For what it is worth, if they do build this off of 228 in Cranberry it is literally right off of 79. The second Cranberry exit was a big construction project as you can get on/off the turnpike right there and it goes right onto 228 where you can then access 19 to get to everything in Cranberry. And they have another construction plan in place they are going to do soon where they are changing up the ramps so you do not have to wait at a light and cross traffic to get on/off 79 from 228, along with some other changes to ease traffic on 228 itself.

Hopefully things like more than 1 lane after you hit the crest of the hill

Yep that part sucks. I drive that everyday to and from work. I think they're going to have to widen it to 2 lanes soon, especially with the new North Catholic HS they're building right there.

Selfishly, I've got a back road way of getting around traffic, and I just hope that the new development doesn't complicate my lunch trips to Moe's. Though, I wouldn't mind talking hockey with Disco while ordering burritos.

I just started working in Cranberry a couple of months ago. I thought it would be smooth sailing not having to work in the city. Boy was I wrong. The longest part of my half hour drive in is the 15 minutes it takes me to go like a mile from the 228 exit off 79 to my work.

228 is bad but Freedom Crider Rd is the worst. I would always go down back roads to avoid it.

One way to get onto 228 but avoid the 228/ Rt 19 intersection is take the Rt 19 Cranberry exit off 79 and then make a right onto Freeport Rd. Next make a left onto Franklin which will take you onto 228 right after Cranberry Commons. You can also make a left into Cranberry Woods off of Franklin. I suggest mapping it before trying it to make sure it will work for the direction you're traveling